Armengol expels a PP representative from Congress after showing a canister of pepper spray

The Government control sessions in Congress are often a box of surprises and a priceless setting for confrontations. Today, the show was starred by the president of the Chamber, Francina Armengol, and the PP deputy, Ana Belén Vázquez.

Vázquez, during his face-to-face talks with the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, displayed before the plenary session a canister of pepper spray like the one some Ceuta children carry in their school backpacks. It is a very small container that practically fits in the palm of your hand. Just a few minutes later, Armengol stopped the succession of questions from the opposition to accuse the popular deputy of having carried a "weapon" in the Chamber.

The PP bench reacted, first with laughter, and then with indignation when Armengol, clinging to article 5.1 of the Weapons Regulations, urged the popular parliamentarian to leave the Chamber. The aforementioned article, as the president's team has been quick to demonstrate, considers weapons to be "personal defense sprays and all those weapons that release gases or aerosols, as well as any device that includes mechanisms capable of projecting narcotic, toxic or corrosive substances."

Armengol, clinging to her strict interpretation of the rules, has insisted time and again, amid popular protests, that Vázquez had to leave the plenary session. The popular deputy resisted for a few minutes and finally proceeded to leave the Chamber. Already in the halls of Congress, he has assured his intention to immediately appeal the president's decision.

"This is not a weapon, it only has 30 milliliters and it is also empty. I even closed it in case it smelled something when I emptied it on the street," explained the deputy who also wondered if what Francina Armengol means is that "all women carry weapons in Ceuta, that all children in schools carry weapons in Ceuta."

Vázquez has insisted that a license is not necessary to carry a canister of pepper spray "because it is not a weapon" and has regretted that the Government considers that in the autonomous city there is "normality" when the reality is, he insisted, that citizens "have to carry means of self-defense."

The deputy has reproached Armengol for "not knowing the Regulations" of Congress. "Someone has reported it wrong and I hope they rectify it." Next, Vázquez went to the chamber police station to hand over the gas canister.

The popular ones have recalled similar cases in which there was no reaction from the Presidency similar to today's. Specifically, they have referred to the episode carried out by Gabriel Rufián (ERC) during the 2022 State of the Nation debate when, to criticize precisely the police action on the Melilla border in which 27 people died, he placed three bullets in the speakers' gallery.